 | This article may lend undue weight to certain ideas, incidents, or controversies.(February 2013) |
 | |
| Founded | 2002 |
|---|---|
| Founders | |
| Headquarters | Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Location |
|
Director | Simon Barrow |
| Website | ekklesia |
Ekklesia was a not-for-profit British think tank which examines the role of religion on public life and policy in the UK.
Ekklesia was founded in 2002 by Jonathan Bartley and Simon Barrow. [1] In September 2002, Ekklesia launched a Sunday programme on BBC Radio Scotland to encourage pacification and minimize violent insurrections in Iraq. [2]
In June 2006, Ekklesia launched a campaign advocating for the separation of the role of the church and state in weddings. The think tank argued that the "one size fits all" attempt to fuse religious and civic marriage was a source of great confusion. [3]
In February 2009, the Bishop of Willesden Pete Broadbent called the directors of Ekklesia "self-appointed self-publicists who speak for nobody ... and pretend that they're speaking for mainstream Christianity". [4] In 2010, when the Christian Concern lobbying group launched the Not Ashamed Day, Ekklesia stated there was no evidence Catholics were being shamed because of their religion. [5] In June 2011, Symon Hill, a bisexual Christian writer and a director of Ekklesia, embarked on a Birmingham-to-London pilgrimage against homophobia. [6]
In October 2012, Ekklesia, in partnership with Edinburgh City Centre Churches Together, the Cornerstone Bookshop, and the Episcopal Diocese of Edinburgh's Adventures in Faith programme, launched the Centre for Living Christianity (CLiC) to explore religious faith in skeptical times. [7]
In March 2016, Ekklesia organized a group letter to ask the new Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Stephen Crabb, to rethink his ministry's position regarding welfare cuts and benefit sanctions. [8]
Jonathan Bartley left the think tank in 2016 and subsequently became co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales.
In June 2019, during US President Donald Trump's official visit to the UK, Simon Barrow called Trump "anti-gospel". [9]
The aspects of Ekklesia as a think-tank and broker of news briefings ceased as of September 2024. [10]
The think tank was financed by donations and the online sale of fair-trade goods. [1]
Ecclesia may refer to:
Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian and poet, who served as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury from 2002 to 2012. Previously the Bishop of Monmouth and Archbishop of Wales, Williams was the first Archbishop of Canterbury in modern times not to be appointed from within the Church of England.
John Shelby "Jack" Spong was an American bishop of the Episcopal Church, born in Charlotte, North Carolina. He served as the Bishop of Newark, New Jersey from 1979 to 2000. Spong was a liberal Christian theologian, religion commentator, and author who called for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines. He was known for his progressive and controversial views on Christianity, including his rejection of traditional Christian doctrines, his advocacy for LGBTQ rights, and his support for interfaith dialogue. Spong was a contributor to the Living the Questions DVD program and was a guest on numerous national television broadcasts. Spong died on September 12, 2021, at his home in Richmond, Virginia, at the age of 90.
The Christian left is a range of Christian political and social movements that largely embrace social justice principles and uphold a social doctrine or social gospel based on their interpretation of the teachings of Christianity. Given the inherent diversity in international political thought, the term Christian left can have different meanings and applications in different countries. While there is much overlap, the Christian left is distinct from liberal Christianity, meaning not all Christian leftists are liberal Christians and vice versa.
In ecclesiology, the Christian Church is what different Christian denominations conceive of as being the true body of Christians or the original institution established by Jesus Christ. "Christian Church" has also been used in academia as a synonym for Christianity, despite the fact that it is composed of multiple churches or denominations, many of which hold a doctrinal claim of being the one true church to the exclusion of the others.
Christian socialism is a religious and political philosophy that blends Christianity and socialism, endorsing socialist economics on the basis of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus. Many Christian socialists believe capitalism to be idolatrous and rooted in the sin of greed. Christian socialists identify the cause of social inequality to be the greed that they associate with capitalism. Christian socialism became a major movement in the United Kingdom beginning in the 19th century. The Christian Socialist Movement, known as Christians on the Left since 2013, is one formal group, as well as a faction of the Labour Party.
The persecution of Christians from 1989 to the present is part of a global pattern of religious persecution. In this era, the persecution of Christians is taking place in Africa, the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Thought for the Day is a daily scripted slot on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 offering "reflections from a faith perspective on issues and people in the news", broadcast at around 7:45 each Monday to Saturday morning. Lasting 2 minutes and 45 seconds, it is a successor to the five-minute religious sequence Ten to Eight (1965–1970) and, before that, Lift Up Your Hearts, which was first broadcast five mornings a week on the BBC Home Service from December 1939, initially at 7:30, though soon moved to 7:47. The feature is mainly delivered by those involved in religious practice; often, these are Christian thinkers, but there have been numerous occasions where representatives of other faiths, including Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism, have presented Thought for the Day.
Religious socialism is a type of socialism based on religious values. Members of several major religions have found that their beliefs about human society fit with socialist principles and ideas. As a result, religious socialist movements have developed within these religions. Those movements include Buddhist socialism, Christian socialism, Islamic socialism, and Jewish socialism. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica Online, socialism is a "social and economic doctrine that calls for public rather than private ownership or control of property and natural resources. According to the socialist view, individuals do not live or work in isolation but live in cooperation with one another. Furthermore, everything that people produce is in some sense a social product, and everyone who contributes to the production of a good is entitled to a share in it. Society as a whole, therefore, should own or at least control property for the benefit of all its members. [...] Early Christian communities also practiced the sharing of goods and labour, a simple form of socialism subsequently followed in certain forms of monasticism. Several monastic orders continue these practices today".
Richard Albert Mohler Jr. is an American evangelical theologian, the ninth president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and host of the podcast The Briefing, where he gives a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.
A faith school is a school in the United Kingdom that teaches a general curriculum but which has a particular religious character or formal links with a religious or faith-based organisation. The term is most commonly applied to state-funded faith schools, although many independent schools also have religious characteristics.
The Christian Council of Britain (CCoB) is an organisation founded by Robert West. While the CCoB claims to be "an independent, non-political organisation autonomous of any political party in Britain," it is closely associated with the British National Party, and West has been described as the BNP's religious affairs spokesman.
Jonathan Charles Bartley is a British politician who was a co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, a position he shared with Caroline Lucas from 2016 to 2018, and then, from 2018 to 2021, with Siân Berry. He was the Green Party's national Work and Pensions spokesperson and the party's Parliamentary candidate for Streatham in the 2015 general election. He was the Unite to Remain candidate for Dulwich and West Norwood at the 2019 general election.
Christian atheism is an ideology that embraces the teachings, narratives, symbols, practices, or communities associated with Christianity without accepting the literal existence of God. It often overlaps with nontheism and post-theism.
The Accord Coalition for Inclusive Education is a campaign coalition of civil society groups and individuals which seeks to ensure all state funded schools in England and Wales are made open and suitable for all, regardless of staff, children or their family's religious or non-religious beliefs. Launched in 2008, the group campaigns for state funded schools to better facilitate religious mixing and the growth of mutual understanding between those of different beliefs, in the interests of equal opportunity, integration and cohesion in society.
Simon Barrow is a practical theologian, commentator, journalist, NGO consultant, adult educator and trainer who is director of the religion and society think tank Ekklesia.
Symon Hill is a bisexual, left-wing, Christian activist and writer. He has worked as campaigns manager at the Peace Pledge Union since 2016. He also teaches history for the Workers' Educational Association. His most recent book is "The Upside-down Bible: What Jesus really said about money, sex and violence", published in 2015.
Robert Malcolm Brian West is a British National Party (BNP) activist and founder of the Christian Council of Britain.
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Johnnie Moore is an American evangelical leader and businessman who founded the Kairos Company, a public relations firm. Moore is a commissioner for the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom and president of Congress of Christian Leaders.
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